easyMobile wins easiermobile.com domain

NEWS easyMobile has wrested the domain name easiermobile.com from Carphone Warehouse.

Carphone Warehouse, which also runs the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) Fresh Mobile, had registered the domain name on the same day as the no-frills easyMobile launched. The site poked fun at its rival's operation, saying: "The Carphone Warehouse doesn't try to run airlines, it sells mobile phones", and directing users to the Fresh Mobile site.

According to a complaint filed with Wipo (World Intellectual Property Organisation), easyGroup claims the URL "is confusingly similar to its trademark easyMobile phonetically, visually and conceptually" and the website was a direct attempt by Carphone Warehouse to capitalise on people searching for the easyMobile site.

easyGroup also claimed the rival mobile chain had registered 'easyMobile' as a keyword with both Google and Yahoo!.

Carphone Warehouse responded that easyGroup had no trademark or common law rights to the name and that the brand, easyMobile, was composed of two generic words that the public wouldn't necessarily associate with the Stelios-owned MVNO.

Wipo, however, disagreed and found in favour of easyGroup. "The panel is confident, based on the facts, that the site of the disputed domain name was created solely for the purposes of competition with the complainant's easyMobiles business.

"It only serves to redirect consumers who may be looking for easyMobile to the respondent's site. There is no direct offering of goods and services on the respondent's site," Wipo's decision on the case said.

Wipo ruled that the domain name should be transferred to easyMobile. At the time of writing, however, the advert for Carphone Warehouse's Fresh brand was still displayed.